The high that comes from learning

I love going to conferences.  I love meeting people face to face that I've only ever "met" before online.  I love sharing ideas and hearing the perspectives of others.  For the past fews days I've been at Learning 2.013 at United World College of South East Asia in Singapore.  This is my first Learning2 conference, but for sure it won't be my last.  It's very different from other conferences I've attended, but perhaps that's because I'm a Learning2Leader and I have a lot to DO as well as a lot to EXPERIENCE - and both of these involve learning.

Today was my first extended session - a workshop of three and a half hours.  I was quite nervous about this but at the same time excited to share ideas about the SAMR model, TPACK and Open Badges.  I'm really keen to explore badges - I feel like we are right at the start of a wave and we can ride this wave and influence the direction we travel in.  I was enthusiastic to discover that other schools are interested in exploring badges too.  Once I got back to my hotel room I thought again about the Incomplete Manifesto for Growth and today this is what strikes me:

Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

The second half of my session was organized into collaborative groups who worked together to create a media product that they could take back to their schools.  It was a joy to watch this process.  "The space between people working together is filled with ... a vast creative potential."

Tomorrow will be a tough and tiring day as I'm leading another extended session, an in-a-nutshell session and a keynote, but tonight I'm on a high.

Photo Credit: duane.schoon via Compfight cc